The different forms ofverbsshow different meanings related to such things astense(past, present, future),person(first person, second person, third person),number(singular, plural) andvoice(active, passive).

Verbsare also often accompanied by verb-like words calledmodals(may, could, should,etc.) andauxiliaries(do, have, will,etc.) to give them different meanings.

One of the most important things aboutverbsis their relationship to time.

Verbstell if something has already happened, if it will happen later, or if it is happening now.

For things happening now, we use thepresent tenseof a verb; for something that has already happened, we use thepast tense; and for something that will happen later, we use thefuture tense.

Some examples of verbs in each tense are in the chart below:

Present

Past

Future

look

looked

will look

move

moved

will move

talk

talked

will talk

Verbslike those in the chart above that form thepast tenseby adding-dor-edare calledregular verbs.

Some of the most commonverbsare not regular and the different forms of theverbmust be learned.

Some examples of suchirregular verbsare in the chart below:

Present

Past

Future

see

saw

will see

hear

heard

will hear

speak

spoke

will speak

The charts above show thesimple tensesof theverbs. There are alsoprogressiveorcontinuousforms which show that the action takes place over a period of time, andperfectforms which show completion of the action. These forms will be discussed more in other lessons, but a few examples are given in the chart below:

Present Continuous

Present Perfect

is looking

has looked

is speaking

has spoken

is talking

has talked

Simple present tense verbshave a special form for thethird person singular.Singularmeans"one"andpluralmeans"more than one." Personis used here to show who or what does the action and can have the following forms:

Averbmust "agree" with itssubject.Subject-verb agreementgenerally means that thethird person singular verbform must be used with athird person subjectin the simple present tense.The wordbe -the most irregular and also most commonverbin English - has different forms for each person and even for the simple past tense. The forms of the wordbeare given in the chart below:

Number

Person

Present

Past

Future

Singular

1st (I)

am

was

will be

2nd (you)

are

were

will be

3rd (he, she, it)

is

was

will be

Plural

1st (we)

are

were

will be

2nd (you)

are

were

will be

3rd (they)

are

were

will be

Usually asubjectcomes before averband anobjectmay come after it. Thesubjectis what does the action of theverband theobjectis what receives the action. In the sentenceBob ate a humburger,Bobis thesubjector the one who did the eating andthe hamburgeris theobjector what got eaten. Averbwhich has anobjectis called atransitive verband some examples are throw, buy, hit, love. Averbwhich has noobjectis called anintransitive verband some examples arego, come, walk, listen.

As you can see in the charts above,verbsare often made up of more than one word. The future forms, for example, use the wordwilland the perfect forms use the wordhave. These words are calledhelpingorauxiliary verbs. The wordbecan serve as anauxiliaryandwillandshallare alsoauxiliaryforms. The chart below shows two other verbs which can also be used asauxiliaries:

Number

Person

Present

Past

Singular

1st (I)

havedo

haddid

2nd (you)

havedo

haddid

3rd (he, she, it)

hasdoes

haddid

Plural

1st (we)

havedo

haddid

2nd (you)

havedo

haddid

3rd (they)

havedo

haddid

There is a type ofauxiliary verbcalled amodalwhich changes the meaning of averbin different ways. Words likecan, should, would, may, might,andmust

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